Palin To Skip The Sunday Shows This Weekend
This won't shock you all that much, but Sarah Palin will not be on any of the Sunday shows this weekend.
A source forwards me the Obama campaign TV booker's internal line-up of Sunday show guests, which gets sent out to select political and media insider types. No Palin on it.
NBC's Meet the Press is fielding consultants Paul Begala and Mike Murphy and several others. CBS is hosting Jennifer Granholm, Diane Feinstein and other pols. ABC: Ed Rendell, Sherrod Brown and others. Fox: Claire McCaskill.
Biden isn't on any of the shows, either. But Biden has done a gazillion of these interviews, and no one doubts that he'd appear if asked or directed to.
By contrast, yesterday was supposed to be Palin's triumphant return, where she was to prove that she can withstand scrutiny, despite her disastrous train-wreck interviews and her campaign's subsequent decision to pack her off to far more friendly media confines.
This weekend might have been a logical time for her to step back into the media glare. Alas, it isn't to be. When, then?
Never. I think she made it pretty clear last night that she has no intention of doing any more interviews.
October 3, 2008 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not even Letterman?
I'm so disappointed.
October 3, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only with those who let her choose the subject to rant about...like Fox News
October 3, 2008 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The media should have the guts to react like Letterman, when THE SAVIOR stood him up to rescue the economy in a New York hotel. She has the duty to explain her policies to the press : this is not up to her!!!This is unheard of in a "democracy". Any given dictator at least try to show some fake interest from the press. She plainly explains that real questions annoy her and nobody reacts to that?
If they are elected, we will get what we deserve and the media should be blamed for it as well
October 4, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sigh. No starbursts this weekend.
I think Andrew Sullivan's head is exploding right about now.
October 3, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lowry's not exactly the go-to guy about interpreting women's signals. He's still under the impression that when his cat shows him affection it means that it loves him when actually it's just hungry.
October 3, 2008 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
But. gee, she was on Faux News all day today...
October 3, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did you note how orchestrated the interviews were? Odd that she fumbles in front of Charlie and Katie, but she's fearless and firm when interviewed by Fox News.
October 3, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
yeah. Wonder how many takes she needed to get it done.
October 3, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
The McCain campaign likely demands a copy of the questions beforehand.
October 3, 2008 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
The two Sarahs
Here is an fairly articulate/rehearsed Sarah Palin discussing the Supreme Court decision regarding Exxon Valdez, in Alaska, in June 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H-26MOxH34
Here is a brain dead Sarah Palin with Katie Couric, September 2008 regarding what Supreme Court decisions she did not agree with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rXmuhWrlj4
From three months ago, she did not remember the Exxon Valdez decision in the Supreme Court. What does that mean for her qualifications for the position if she blanks out, forgets, cannot hold too many issues at one time?
October 4, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yup! She is not helping by being so scripted though. I don't watch Fox News. It's a facade. Bunch of liars. I think it's risky to be seen on that show alone. It tells us, that McCain's campaign doesn't trust her to be interviewed.
They are hoping that the VP debate will give them an advantage in the polls. They don't want her rants in an interview to spoil it. But they can't hide her forever.
But if her own running mate can't trust her on the Sunday morning shows to be interviewed by a few reporters, why should we trust her to know how to handle the important VP job?
Hasn't Bush embarrassed us enough as a nation for the past 8 years? Enough is enough! We need someone who can handle the media without looking like an idiot.
October 4, 2008 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sunday Shows are sort of like corrals. Mavericks no likey corrals. You becha, Yup! Yup!..
So this maverick walked into a bar and said, may I call you Joe............
October 3, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
lmao! awesome
October 3, 2008 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
No...it's COW, Maverick Cow!
October 3, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
You owe me a keyboard, dude!
October 3, 2008 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Take THAT damned MSM Media Filter!
October 3, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Answering question is way too conventional for a Maverick. And dictators.
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
October 3, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I really want to know WTF she thinks she is. I am not religeous by any deinition, and not spiritual by most, and she is so obviously the False Prophet my hair is standing on end.
Now that a judge in Alaska has reminded the GOP that legislatures have been doling out subpeonas for 220 odd years, this creature will return to Alaska to face the same charges that impeached Bill Clinton.
And she must never rise again.
October 3, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
But...she WINKS! At YOU! And when that happens, it's like little starbursts all over the place! How can you resist?
And no, I cannot take credit for this little bit of idiocy. It's sire was Rich Lowry.
October 3, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rich Lowrey?!? That bastion of critical progessive thought? Another sign of the Hypocalypse.
October 3, 2008 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hypocalypse POW!
October 3, 2008 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Oh, hey, judge, there you go again, looking into the past. We just want to move forward." (wink)
October 3, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
She's prechin' ta da McStupid's dat haf ben giv'm da rite bye da Constitution ta vote fer someun' simlair to thar standin' an' representin' thar inerest in gov'ment.
October 3, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not surprised to hear this. She slid into 2nd base last night and made it. I'm sure McCain is trying to figure out if the campaign can afford to just build her a condo there so she doesn't have to try for 3rd.
October 3, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
... and another thing. One would think that the McCain campaign would feel safe sending her on MTP with Brokaw, right?
October 3, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is so good! ROTFL
October 3, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
:D
October 3, 2008 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Forget about the interviews. When is she going to do a press conference?!?!
No VP candidate in modern history has gone a month without doing one. Jesus, even that idiot Qualye was out in front of the pool the day after the RNC ended.
October 3, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
By her logic, then this is not modern history. Besides... never look back!
October 3, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why look back when you're already charging forward into the past?
October 3, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
just a quick question, when was biden's last press conf?
October 3, 2008 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Technically he put himself in front of press on the night of the first debate.
October 3, 2008 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think what last night demonstrated is that Palin can perform if and only if she's allowed notecards.
The major question of the election, as regards Sarah Palin, is now whether or not she can go the ENTIRE next month without ever having to speak without either (1) a teleprompter (2) notecards or (3) fox news.
October 3, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
gee! I missed that. She was actually performing? Damn! For some strange reason I was under the impression she was dodging any and all questions put to her. By not answering, nothing will stick...make believe Teflon. All she did was go off and talk about things not related to what was asked. Unless, that's what you were calling a performance.
October 3, 2008 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
She was speaking in complete sentences. That is what "performing" means by Palin standards.
October 3, 2008 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
And let's not forget those starbursty winks!
October 3, 2008 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL!
Winky Starburst -
(I'm still in thrall to Bible Spice - I can't remember who came up with that last night -)
October 3, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
oooh by golly [wink wink] dontcha know!
October 3, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
They both had cue cards.
October 3, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
The difference is, I think, that he had cue cards with notes from which he could develop answers to questions. She had complete answers on hers - including instructions on when to wink - and spit them out in order even if they had nothing to do with the question. And if a particular card didn't fill up the full 90 seconds, she just moved on the next, combining to completely different thoughts into a single response.
That's what it looked like to me, anyway. And that's why she told everybody up front that she was going to answer the questions, she was going to read what they told her to...er, I mean...she was going to speak directly to the American people to get around the filter.
October 3, 2008 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't get to watch the whole thing, I heard most of it on the radio. I'll have to go an watch the whole thing . . . wait, I'll have to listen to HER again, never mind.
October 3, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, they both did. The rules said they could, after all. But the interesting thing about Palin here isn't whether she used notes (a normal thing which we expect politicians to do) but whether she is able to minimally function, speak, or answer questions about national issues at all without those notes (something so aberrational that we normally don't even stop to ask whether it might be a problem). We have plenty of examples of Biden speaking politically without notes; the second point isn't a concern with him. But I think the way Palin used her notecards last night, combined with the stark contrast between Palin with her canned responses last night and Palin when she had to go without canned responses in the Couric interview last week, combined with the lessened extent to which we have examples of her going out and facing the press as a normal politician does-- together I think we have strong signs that in Palin's case there might actually be a problem there.
One thing that you'd have to have been watching the debate on TV to have noticed (although the camera angles made it very hard to say for sure, so take this with a grain of salt) but that interested me greatly is that almost constantly throughout the debate, Biden was clearly taking notes. If Palin was doing the same during the debate, I couldn't see signs of it from C-SPAN's camera angle.
October 3, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
But whatever she was doing behind that podium, it looked suspicious to me. Plus, if she had a blackberry... isn't there a way to have it broadcast into your ear somehow? So she might have had covert sight and sound "guidance" - like some kind of guided missile to keep the words flowing.
October 3, 2008 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing like that could have been possible, she was surrounded by media and cameras on every side.
October 3, 2008 6:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe I read somewhere that they're trying a new tactic with her - only 100% friendly interviews that will force the networks to cover those rather than making her available to the networks. This way they better control her answers as friendly interviewers will either feed her the questions before hand so she can be prepared with an answer or edit out any gaffes.
Basically they're going to try and fake it for the last month.
October 3, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very believable. But jeeze, haven't they already been faking it for about a month? Damn, what a terrible position McCain has gotten himself into. They should put John on suicide watch. Many would be getting ready to slit their wrists at this point, IMO.
October 3, 2008 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just come out and say it!
INFOMERICALS
October 3, 2008 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
It will be interesting to watch-- I don't think any Presidential candidate, top-ticket or no, has ever taken strategy based entirely around hiding before. I wonder, if they actually do this, will they be able to get to the election without it being commented on? And if the press starts to notice all her interviewers are not just playing softball but actively supporting her, will this cause them to start to call into question her previous "okay, not that bad" performances, like her RNC speech or last night's debate?
October 3, 2008 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is why Sarah Palin asked Senator Biden if she could call him Joe.
She needed that OK, so that she would not be accused of being disrespectful of a US Senator, when she unleash her prepared line: Say it ain't so Joe, which actually is a line from the Chicago Black Sox scandal and shoeless Joe Jackson. She finished it off with Reagan's line: there you go again.
It reveals what an unoriginal Twinkie she really is.
October 3, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yup, noticed that and had that thought at the time as well. Very sophomoric, like the pull my finger setup for a fart joke or something.
October 3, 2008 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
And I believe that was the only time she called him Joe, so I believe you are correct - it was all about that line, which was perhaps the most contrived of the night. Of course, her entire schtick was contrived but that one was pretty bad. But can't you just see the Corner folks, sitting in Momma Goldberg's penthouse in Manhattan, sipping Chardonnay, high-fiving each other after she said that line. Of course, right after that, Rich Lowry had to excuse himself and he disappeared into the bathroom for several minutes. When he came out, he looked flushed but had a big smile on his face. And if you looked closely enough, there was a little starburst in his eye. Questions still remain, however, about the stain on his slacks.
October 3, 2008 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Of course, right after that, Rich Lowry had to excuse himself and..."
lol... that was funny. Wouldn't you think someone - anyone, even - would be embarrassed to write what he did? Dear god, how did it ever come to be that we even recognize his name? I really look forward to the day when assholes like Lowry are a distant memory.
October 3, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
You could tell she'd been waiting the whole debate to use that line and she finally worked it in there toward the end.
Some people are saying she had a Blackberry on the podium and they fed her lines that way, in addition to the cue cards.
October 3, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
A Blackberry? No shit? Wow... to hell with the questions, *and* any pretense at ethics, I guess.
October 3, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
For this to work, they had to have negotiated for somebody's mic to be on at the start, so we'd all know she asked.
I could see these clowns actually paying attention to that detail, and thinking it would all be worth the set-up, when that became the zinger that stuck.
October 3, 2008 10:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Letterman just mentioned the set-up ("May I call you Joe?"). Called it cheesy.
In fact, Letterman's ripping her three or four new ones right now. Yeah!
October 4, 2008 12:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sarah Palin's debate flowchart
October 3, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops link doesn't work: http://politicalwire.com/archives/images/palinflow.gif
October 3, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahaha.. thanks. that was really funny.